Is DECT suitable for the wireless local loop?

The use of radio based technology to replace the conventional copper pairs found in the subscriber (or local) loop is attracting considerable interest from both new and incumbent telecommunications operators. In developed countries, the so called wireless local loop (WLL) is seen as an attractive way for new operators to gain direct access to customers. The question remains however, will the performance of DECT equipment be good enough to be useful in the WLL, or will changes to its specification be required? To try and answer this question, a number of trials were conducted at two locations using representative (but prototype) DECT equipment. The parameters investigated were the received signal strength (translated to path-loss), bit error rate (BER) and a subjective evaluation of the received audio quality